Saturday, December 16, 2006

Why Beta Why?

I'm having trouble sleeping tonight. So, I'm thinking, why not blog?

After days of going back and forth, I finally decided to make the switch to Beta Blogger, UGH! I felt it was really affecting me making comments on blogs. And, maybe it was preventing others from commenting on my blog. So, I took the step to make the switch.

When I was thinking to switching to Blogger Beta, I had this flashback to my blog post number one on June 19, 2006 called: Does this thing work?

I've got to admit off the bat that I'm no techno-expert. This entire sign on process was kind of traumatic. Is this what this blog is going to be about -- whining? Hope not. I'm glad just to be up an running. Don't worry, this sparse blogspace will be filling up soon. Just as soon as a figure out what to talk about...

Ah.... Memories.... Anyway, I heard that the side bar may be affected by switching. So, I made sure I saved the links of where all the third party stuff came from. I even printed out my front page, in case I had to re-create my sidebar on my new beta site.

Finally, I got through the first page of Beta registraton. I paused and took a big breath before clicking on making the move. Optimistic that everything would be ok, I clicked to the next screen hoping to see my new site. Unfortunately, I saw the following message.

Could not switch you to the new Blogger: Thanks for your interest in the new Blogger in beta! Unfortunately, we cannot switch your Blogger account at this time, because one or more of your blogs cannot be moved. Please see our help article for more information.

What! Blogger, you've been bugging me for MONTHS to get me to switch over. I've been hearing stories, both good and bad, about switching. Many of my blog friends have been bugging me to switch. I made the decision and went through the process, and this is what I get? How do I switch to wordpress?

After about half an hour, I think I've calmed down a little now. The good news is that I think the comment problem has been resolved (hopefully). I'm going to try again to check out my favorite blogs and comment. Feel free to comment here and let me know if this thing is stll working. I'm still thinking about wordpress...

I'm just wondering if it gave you the error message because simply everything was a mess yesterday. I had problems with posting coments (and people posting comments to my blog), problems with writing posts (code being inserted where I didn't insert it!), post text being eaten, server hangs, error messages...this was all in Firefox but oddly enough I managed to post a comment without incident and relatively quickly in I--but that could have been just luck? I have no idea. I also got a different version of my blog with errors displaying on IE...YAY!

I've also had some other downright bizarre problems with beta. It ate my stats tracking code from my template--how does that happen?! Although thinking back, I *might* have done it...let's not rush to judgement.

And the instructions were pretty simple for moving my "Technoratty" stuff out of my template and into widget form (I mean, how hard is cut and paste?) but it would not work!!!

I kept bugging the tech support people and they kept telling me the same thing and I kept saying NO! TRIED IT! WON'T WORK! Then one day in another fit of masochism, I tried it and up popped a message that prompted me to "Upgrade" so I did and ta da! It was done.

The bafflement ensues.

I see you have your comment moderation on so...well, I'll just see how this goes. I'm noticing that it's taking a couple of attempts with the word verification. I'll let you know.

I haven't had the guts to switch, either. I think I'll wait and see what happens when you try it! I don't know anyone who's done it successfully, but the tales sure make it sound like a pain. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

its great isn't it! beta entices you to join it and then when you make the move it abandons you! i did manage to switch and so far have had no real problems, so good luck and hope you can join us on the other side soon lol

so sorry doc but i was just laughing out loud at you finally going to switch and beta saying "not so fast you whippersnapper, i'm not sure i want you any more after all those comments i saw you make...oh yeah, i read them, all of them, now doc you sit there for awhile and stew and i'll come back and invite you again - - - when i'm ready! mughhahahaha.... " the beta guy

so sorry doc but i was just laughing out loud at you finally going to switch and beta saying "not so fast you whippersnapper, i'm not sure i want you any more after all those comments i saw you make...oh yeah, i read them, all of them, now doc you sit there for awhile and stew and i'll come back and invite you again - - - when i'm ready! mughhahahaha.... " the beta guy

so sorry doc but i was just laughing out loud at you finally going to switch and beta saying "not so fast you whippersnapper, i'm not sure i want you any more after all those comments i saw you make...oh yeah, i read them, all of them, now doc you sit there for awhile and stew and i'll come back and invite you again - - - when i'm ready! mughhahahaha.... " the beta guy

See, the funny thing is I haven't had problems with "classic" Blogger...except when dealing with Beta Blogs. I have no interest in switching over at all, and won't until it is satisfactorily demonstrated to me that NOTHING will change on my blog. Hell, I already have far more email addresses than I need or use. Why do I need a stupid Google account too?

I was one of the ones waiting and waiting and waiting for the message to join Beta. I like it. It did not change anything on my template and navigation is easier.More fun in general.Sorry you could not be added to it.

I'm a HUGE wordpress advocate. Blogger ate half my template back in September. I don't know why. I updated some sidebar links, saved it, and everything looked hunky dory. A few hours later, I went back to check something, and half my sidebar was gone. Just gone. I didn't know how to rebuild it since I don't speak much HTML.

Moving to wordpress was so easy (you can import a blog from another host so it'll bring all your archives with it) and I have not had ONE SINGLE PROBLEM with it since I switched. Blogger was just a headache I didn't need. If you're seriously considering Wordpress, I'll happily answer any questions you might have.

And thanks for adding me to your links! Although despite the name of my site, I hope you do know it's a parenting blog, not a medical blog. Though I guess lately I could call it a patient point of view blog.